Expression of clusterin in normal and   preeclamptic placentas.
OBJECTIVE
Clusterin is a multifunctional protein that is up-regulated during many different pathophysiological states. Clusterin may be related to a compensation mechanism involving aggregation of soluble proteins, inhibition of complement-mediated cell damage, adaptive regeneration or apoptosis. Clusterin may increase in response to cell damage that results from hypoxic stress in the preeclamptic placenta. The goal of this study was to measure clusterin expression and localization in normal and preeclamptic placental tissues.


METHODS
Immnunohistochemical and double immunofluorescent staining for clusterin was performed on eight normal and eight preeclamptic placental tissues, and clusterin expression was quantified by Western blotting.


RESULTS
Immunohistochemical analysis of clusterin in placental tissues obtained from normal pregnancies and those with preeclampsia showed localization of clusterin mainly in the syncytiotrophoblasts and villous endothelial cells. In the double immunofluorescent staining, clusterin was detected in the cytoplasm. The Western blot analysis showed that clusterin expression in the placental tissues of the preeclampsia group was significantly higher than in the normal pregnancy group.


CONCLUSIONS
Increased expression of clusterin in placental tissues might play an important role in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia.
Shin
Jeong-Kyu
JK
Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, College of Medicine, Gyeongsang National University, 92 Chilam-dong, Jinju 660-751, Korea.
Han
Kyung-An
KA
Kang
Min-Young
MY
Kim
Yoon-Sook
YS
Park
Ji-Kwon
JK
Choi
Won-Jun
WJ
Lee
Soon-Ae
SA
Lee
Jong-Hak
JH
Choi
Wan-Sung
WS
Paik
Won-Young
WY
D000328:Adult; D015153:Blotting, Western; D051152:Clusterin / Q000096:biosynthesis*; D005260:Female; D019084:Fluorescent Antibody Technique, Indirect; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D010920:Placenta / Q000378:metabolism*; D011225:Pre-Eclampsia / Q000378:metabolism*; D011247:Pregnancy
C495242:CLU protein, human; D051152:Clusterin